Women with elite education less likely to work: Study

WASHINGTON:Women with degrees from top universities are less likely to be working full time compared to their counterparts from less selective schools, a first-of-its-kind study in the US has found.

The research by Joni Hersch, professor of law and economics and management, from Vanderbilt University shows that female graduates of elite undergraduate universities are working much fewer hours than their counterparts from less selective institutions, especially if they have kids.

"Even though elite graduates are more likely to earn advanced degrees, marry at later ages and have higher expected earnings, they are still opting out of full-time work at much higher rates than other graduates, especially if they have children," said Hersch.

Hersch's research finds that 60 per cent of female graduates from elite colleges are working full time compared to 68 per cent of women from other schools.

The presence of children strongly influences how much a woman works. Labour market activity is lower for women with children, but the gap between those women with and without children is largest for elite graduates.

Among elite graduates, married women without children are 20 percentage points more likely to be employed than their elite counterparts with children, while among non-elite graduates, the difference in the likelihood of employment is 13.5 percentage points.

Hersch found that when comparing graduates from elite and less selective schools, the largest gap in full-time labour market activity is among women who also earned a master's in business degree.

"Married MBA mothers with a bachelor's degree from the most selective schools are 30 percentage points less likely to be employed full time than are graduates of less selective schools," said Hersch in a statement.

The full-time employment rate for MBA moms who earned bachelor's degrees from a tier-one institution is 35 per cent. In contrast, the full-time employment rate for those from a less-selective institution is 66 per cent.

The gap remains even after taking into account the selectivity of MBA institution, personal characteristics, current or prior occupation, undergraduate major, spouse's characteristics, number and age of children, and family background.

A common question associated with opting out is whether highly educated women are willingly choosing to exit the labour force to care for their children or whether they are "pushed out" by inflexible workplaces, researchers said.